


You Are Worth More Than My Creed

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Assassin's Creed AU, M/M, Slow burn fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-03-06 20:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3146885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A Freewood Assassin’s Creed AU, because I’m combining my two loves and I keep having this recurring dream about novice assassin Ryan pining after civilian Gavin. This is a modern day Assassin’s AU, set in Austin, and then in New York. From Chapter 1, we’re making Ryan, Michael and Ray about 18, 19. Gavin is 16, Geoff and Jack are 26-27.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A Freewood Assassin’s Creed AU, because I’m combining my two loves and I keep having this recurring dream about novice assassin Ryan pining after civilian Gavin. This is a modern day Assassin’s AU, set in Austin, and then in New York. From Chapter 1, we’re making Ryan, Michael and Ray about 18, 19. Gavin is 16, Geoff and Jack are 26-27.

**_ Chapter One _ **

Ryan loved free-running. Nothing else compared to the wind whipping his hair and hood, the scrape of stone against his boots and the brief moment between leaping from the edge of a building and landing on the other side that felt like he was flying. Of course, until gravity took over and forced him back down, rolling to absorb the brunt of the impact before continuing on his run.

It was the perfect time to go for a run, the sun had mostly set and the only light was from the streetlamps, casting shadows that he easily hid in. The cars on the streets below did nothing to illuminate his path, sometimes the light would shine on him but only for a brief moment, then the car would drive on by and leave him in the dark again.

“Hey! Ryan!” a voice called, barely audible over the crunch of gravel underneath his boots and the twilight bustle in the streets of Austin but it caught the young man’s attention anyway. He slowed down, stopping a few metres short of the edge of the rooftop before looking around for the source of the voice. There was a whisper of fabric shifting gravel and something scraping against stone, likely on accident but it was obvious what was going on.

‘Too easy,’ he thought to himself with a mirthful grin.

He barely heard the run up before he took a small step to the side, the blur of white flying right through the space he’d just been in. The blur cursed as it skidded through the gravel and came to a stop, turning and fixing a glare at Ryan.

“You missed,” Ryan called out with a smirk, watching as his friend and fellow novice, Michael, brushed dust off of his jeans and white hoodie.

“Yeah well it’s not my fault you’ve got fucking ninja senses,” Michael grumbled. “You said you were gonna come get me before your next run,” he added.

“You were with Lindsay. I didn’t want to disturb your ‘private time’,” Ryan explained.

“Fair, fair. Anyway, The Boss wants us back at the _Villa_. Up for a race?” the auburn haired boy asked.

“Always am,” Ryan replied, crouching down at the edge of the building

“Ready…GO!” Michael shouted, getting that split second advantage from calling the starting time but that was all it was, one split second that Ryan made useless by sprinting ahead of him, leaping over the alleyways with no hesitation whatsoever. They hadn’t been very far away from their Headquarters in the first place so it only took 5 minutes for them to be across the street from the _Villa_. Michael gripped the gutters of the building they were standing on, climbing down the safe way while Ryan glanced down, spotting a dumpster full of cardboard and other recyclables. He closed his eyes, spread out his arms and fell forwards, twisting his body just enough so he landed on his ass right in the centre of the bin.

“You’re fucking insane,” he heard Michael shout from the third storey, jumping onto the fire escape nearby.

“No shit,” Ryan laughed in reply, crawling out of the dumpster and standing right by the curb while he watched over his shoulder as Michael slowly made his way down the fire escape. Why learn the Leap of Faith if you weren’t going to use it? Ryan shook his head and looked into the lobby of the _Villa_ , his gaze focusing on a person sitting in one of their plush chairs. The person was a stunning young man, messy sandy brown hair with tanned skin. He had one bare foot planted on the seat so he could prop what seemed to be a camera against his thigh, looking at the display with a little smile on his lips. He was so gorgeous-

“JESUS CHRIST, RYAN!”

The novice was brought out of his trance when a hand gripped his hood and dragged him backwards, just avoiding getting hit by the bus that went screaming past, honking its horn. Ryan hadn’t even realised he had taken a few steps into the street, he’d been so focused on that young man.

“You would have been fucking flattened! What the fuck were you staring at?!” Michael shouted, looking over his friend. Ryan glanced back into the lobby, seeing the retreating back of the young man who’d slipped his second shoe back on and was walking into an elevator with one of their guards, likely the ones that kept an eye on the informants and families of the assassins in the Brotherhood.

“Nothing. It was nothing. Come on, we’ll be late,” Ryan murmured, shaking his head and muttering to himself as they made their way into the building and then for the Assassins Only elevator that took them to the sub-basement.

**_ FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW _ **

“I heard from Jones that you were nearly hit by a car. That’s very unlike you, Haywood.”

Ryan looked up from his and Michael’s hidden blade that they were pulling apart for a lesson. Jack Pattillo, the second in command of the American chapter of the Brotherhood watched over their table. He and some other older assassins were pacing around the room, showing how the blades worked and making sure none of the students were going to emulate the Levantine assassins and try to remove their ring fingers.

It had happened before.

“I was…distracted. It won’t happened again, Mom,” Ryan replied. Jack smiled and shook his head at the nickname, one that was given by the assassins in the next rank up but apparently it’s travelled around.

“I hope not. Mr Ramsey wouldn’t be very happy if you ended up in a morgue because you weren’t paying attention,” Jack chided gently. Ryan nodded, sitting himself back down with Michael while Jack went back on his rounds.

“You’re one of the best students here. No way you were staring at ‘nothing’. What was it?” Michael asked, handing over the blade to Ryan for him to look over.

“It was nothing,” Ryan said, flushing a little as he recalled the young man from the lobby, but obviously his face gave away far too much because Michael’s lips curled up into a smirk as he poked Ryan in the side.

“ _Who_ were you staring at?” Michael asked, snickering when the light blush in Ryan’s cheeks deepened.

“No one,” Ryan insisted. Michael made noise of disbelief but he left it at that, going over the blade’s blueprints. But just because it was No One at the moment didn’t mean Ryan wouldn't spend some time trying to learn who they actually were.


	2. Chapter 2

**_ Chapter Two _ **

“Good morning, everyone,” Mentor Geoff Ramsey greeted the novices seated at the table. They were gathered on the top floor in one of the conference room, Geoff at the head of the table with a suspiciously absent Jack and exactly half of the novices missing as well. “I have a training mission for you today,” he said, lacing his fingers together.

“Does it include parkour?” Ray asked with a grin. Michael rolled his eyes, as did Ryan but the head Assassin just ignored the comment.

“The mission is as follows. Downstairs, in the front desk, is a package addressed to me. Your job is to retrieve the package and bring it back to me in my suite,” Geoff explained. The novices all looked confused, thinking that the mission sounded oddly simple when most of the time the Mentor’s training missions were unbearably difficult.

“So what’s the catch?” Lindsay asked with a quirked eyebrow and a cautious tone.

“Every single off duty assassin is now playing the role of ‘guard’. So you have to retrieve the package and return it to me with 114 fully trained assassins stationed throughout the building, all knowing that you’re about to go on this mission,” Geoff said with a smile on his own face. The novices all paled.

“Well shit,” Kdin murmured.

“You can take any route down to the lobby as long as you don’t leave the building. We don’t want to have to pay off cops to ignore complaints about teenagers scaling buildings,” Geoff added, distributing red sashes.

“We’ve also split you into two teams to work against each other. Jack is briefing Blue team in another conference room on this floor. Like this mission, real assassins often have to compete with other groups to get to targets, be it Templars or just ordinary mercenaries so you have others to compete with as well. Both teams pick a leader and I want you back at my suite by noon with the package,” Geoff ordered, standing and collecting his paperwork before leaving Red team to their planning.

“So…all in favour of Ryan being team leader?” Matt asked, raising a hand. Everyone else followed him without hesitation. Ryan sputtered in disagreement before finally conceding, running a hand through his hair in thought.

“What’s the plan, boss? Hardcore Parkour or Stealth and Stupid?” Michael asked, leaning back in his chair as he tied his Red sash around his bicep.

“Stealth and Stupid but a little parkour wouldn’t hurt,” Ryan replied to Michael before addressing the rest of the team. “We’re going to split up into two different groups. Stealth are going to sneak through the building, using the elevator shafts and air ducts to make their way to the lobby. Stupid are going to barrel through hallways and distract the guards. If you can, take them out with non-lethal tactics and tie them up,” the older boy said.

“I volunteer for Stupid,” Ray raising his hand.

“Matt, Jeremy and Michael, you’re with Ray as well. Make sure to spread yourselves across the floors and don’t directly confront the guards unless you have to. Try to start a chase and keep them as far from the lobby as possible. Stealth, you’re going to use air-ducts and the elevator shafts to get down to the lobby,” Ryan said, looking at Caleb, Kdin and Lindsay. “Think of this as a challenge. If your feet touch carpet, you lose,” Ryan added, smiling at the competitive glint in their eyes.

“What team are you on?” Michael asked while everyone finished tying off their sashes and raising their hoods.

“Team Stupid. The other assassins know I’d be picked for leader. They’ll all go for me because I’d be the most likely to go for the package and they would want to discourage you all by taking me out,” the older boy pointed out, pausing to use his teeth to tie off his own sash.

“What they don’t realise is, I know my team and I know that Lindsay, Caleb and Kdin are the best at hiding and acrobatics while the rest of us are stronger and faster. We will lead them all on a merry chase while team Stealth grab the package,” Ryan finished, clapping Michael on the back with a grin on his face.

“Alright, let’s do this!” Matt called, going for the door, just for Ryan to stop him. When everyone gave him a questioning look, the leader waited, cupping a hand around his ear. A chorus of excited shouting erupted from what was likely the Blue team, followed by a door opening and then a brief silence.

“ _SHIT!”_ Miles’ squeal echoed through the hall and then there was the sound of boots stamping on carpet and a mix of terrified squealing and shouting as Blue tried to evade the group of guards Geoff had definitely posted right outside the conference rooms as soon as he left.

“Geoff is evil,” Caleb murmured in awe. Ryan nodded, grabbing a chair and pulling it over to the opening in the air-duct so he could reach up and pull it off. He helped his team up into the duct, instructing them to crawl straight ahead and exit into the elevator shaft.

As the Red team scaled down the shafts, they realised very quickly that Geoff was far sneakier than originally perceived. No wonder he ran the American branch of the Brotherhood.

“ _THE ELEVATORS ARE OFF, NOOO,”_ Kerry shrieked from the next floor down, probably having ran down the stairwell to avoid the guards. Red team snickered, making their way down and stopping off at different floors.

“Have fun, Haywood,” Michael said with a wink and a salute before he crawled into the 6th floor vent. Lindsay, Caleb and Kdin dropped past Ryan once they got to the 3rd floor, the elevator having been stopped there, blocking their path.

“Shiiiit,” Lindsay groaned but Ryan just gave her a reassuring look.

“It’s all good. We took the elevator next to this one to the top floor, right? It’s gotta still be up there. We just have to climb in this one and open the doors, then get into the shaft next to it,” Ryan explained, rolling his eyes at the giggles from the word ‘shaft’. He gripped the access panel and yanked it off, sliding into the elevator and landing gracefully before he shook out his arms, getting ready to try and pull the doors open.

“What if someone’s on the other side?” Caleb asked nervously, adjusting his hood self-consciously.

“Then I’ll take ‘em down. Just focus on getting the other doors open and getting downstairs, yeah?” Ryan replied, digging his fingers into the small gap in the doors, pulling with a strained grunt until the inner doors finally parted. He carefully pulled the outer doors only slightly so he could peek out into the hall. No one there.

“Get ready,” Ryan whispered, motioning for Caleb to come over and help him pull. The doors opened with a groan and they all clambered out, going straight for the doors next to them.

“Guess we failed your challenge, huh?” Lindsay joked, helping the boys pull. Ryan let out a small huff of laughter, just for the grin to drop when they finally got both sets open to see the elevator car right in front of them, blocking the way down.

“Fuck,” Ryan sighed, flinching when the sound of boots echoed through the hallway, coming from the entry to the stairwell. “Back into the elevator, now,” he hissed, everyone scrambling back in, climbing back out of the safety door. The boots passed by mostly, briefly stopping in front of the elevator just after Ryan secured the panel. Burnie looked inside before continuing on his way, shouting orders to the other assassins with him.

“Where to now?” Kdin asked. Ryan closed his eyes, rubbing a hand over his face as he tried to make a new plan.

“I’m going to jump out of the elevator and get the guards’ attention while you get into the vent and go towards the stairwell. Once all of them pass by, you climb out, get down to the next floor and then get back into the vents. The challenge is back on. You touch carpet, you lose. Keep out of sight,” Ryan ordered, getting the three novices into the vents before he pulled the panel of the elevator back off, waiting for more boots to come by. Just as the assassins made their rounds of the floor again, Ryan jumped down, taking a step into the middle of the hallway.

“Fuck,” he called out, pretending to be legitimately shocked. The assassins turned around and sprinted towards him without a second thought. Ryan waited until the right moment before he ran straight at them, dropping to his knees and sliding down the hall while he knocked a few of the ‘guards’ over, the momentum carrying him forward enough so he could somersault and land on his feet before taking off in a flash and heading upstairs.

He didn’t need to slow down at all to keep the group on his tail with them being better trained but, thankfully, a lot of them were a fair amount older and not as spry as they used to be. The boy ran up four floors before throwing himself over the rail and back down two, gripping the edge and swinging onto the platform. There were a series of curses from the upper floor as they all tried to run back down.

Ryan continued this leap frog act until he had a decent three floor lead on them, crawling into an air vent right before they ran past. The novice let out a sigh of relief as he crawled, thankful that he’d managed to escape.

 _Creak_ … _Crash_!

Ryan let out a yelp when he fell, chunks of plaster and metal sheeting from the vent itself landing on top of him and a fine layer of plaster dust coating his hair and clothes. The assassin looked around, realising he’d landed on someone’s bed. And the someone was there in the room with him. Someone with sandy-blonde hair and tanned skin.

“Um. Hi.”


	3. Chapter 3

**_ Chapter Three _ **

“Um. Hi.”

Ryan’s eyes widened when he realised where he was. In the bed of the young man he’d seen in the lobby the night before. He started stammering, his cheeks flushing as he tried to extricate himself from the pile of debris he’d covered the other boy’s bed in. He was even prettier up close, hazel eyes blinking owlishly at him and of course, with Ryan’s luck, he was only wearing a towel while water trailed teasingly down his body.

“Sorry, I’ll send someone to clean this up soon,” Ryan squeaked, standing up on the bed and jumping until he got a firm grip on the edge of the now exposed vent, pulling himself up and escaping towards the now, thankfully, vacant stairwell. There was a brief moment of peace that allowed Ryan to breathe through his mortification before the next problem arose.

“ _RYAN, HELP!”_

Caleb’s shriek came from further down but was definitely in the stairwell, where they most certainly shouldn’t have been. Ryan peeked down, spotting Caleb, Lindsay and Kdin sprinting up the stairs as fast as they could, a bulge underneath Kdin’s hoodie that showed they were successful in retrieving the package but weren’t able to lose the guards.

“ _Fuckity fucking fuck_ ,” Ryan hissed. He took a deep breath then ran down the stairs, eventually skipping them altogether and just jumping down from platform to platform. Once he was close enough, he shouted to his teammates.

“ _Gangway!”_ he called and the three jumped to either side of the flight of stairs just in time to avoid being tackled by Ryan. Instead, he kept moving until he _did_ tackle the four full assassins, knocking them all to the next platform down. Having the build of a quarterback did come in handy sometimes. “Go up and then back to stealth!” he shouted to his team-mates who said nothing in return.

“Goddamn, what are you made of? Fucking adamantium?” Burnie grumbled, trying to get up, just for Ryan to scramble to his feet first and run back upstairs while the assassins tried to untangle themselves from each other. The attack left him enough time to get to the elevator and see Lindsay’s foot vanish from the access door in the roof.

“Hey!” A voice called from down the hall. Ryan flinched, taking a step instinctively before it clicked that that voice was too young to be one of the guards. He scanned around for the source and then, to his equal pleasure and dismay, it was the young man from earlier. He was fully dressed and jogging down the hall towards Ryan.

“Hi again. Sorry, I swear I’ll get someone to clean up your place, I’m just in the middle of something-“

“I don’t care about that. I wanted to check if you were okay,” the young man said, waving off Ryan’s excuse. Ryan’s mouth snapped shut and he couldn’t figure out how to answer. The accent also caught him off guard. British, definitely. Ryan loved British accents.

“I-“

“Gotcha!”

Ryan let out a shout when he was suddenly knocked down and something was being tied around his wrists.

“You’re a hard kid to catch,” Burnie huffed, pulling Ryan to his feet.

“Hey, what’s going on?” the boy asked with a frown as he reached out his hand like he was going to be able to do anything to stop the adults to haul off a bound 19 year old.

“Oh shit, sorry Gav. You weren’t here for the memo. It’s a training mission,” Burnie explained but the look on the boy’s face said he didn’t believe that. Burnie sighed, looking down at Ryan.

“Ryan, tell him we’re not trying to kidnap you,” he asked. Ryan smiled at the young man, trying not to let his nerves get in the way.

“It’s true. It’s just a training thing. I’m fine,” he confirmed. Gav retracted his hand but still seemed a little hesitant.

“Geoff’s running this?” he asked.

“Yeah, just give him a call and he’ll tell you the same. It’s all good,” Ryan replied. The British boy nodded slowly, watching the assassins lead Ryan back to the stairwell to take him back up to the top floor.

“How’d my team do?” Ryan asked casually on the way to the penthouse suite.

“Better than Blue,” Gus replied simply. The rest of the trip was fairly quiet. Once they reached the top floor, they headed straight for Geoff’s suite, opening the door and revealing all the novices that had been captured by the guards. Nearly all of blue team were there, except for Chris and Aaron. The entirety of the ‘Stupid’ portion of Ryan’s team were there, all chatting while they had coffee in the lounge.

“You caught Ryan? Haywood, you’re slipping,” Geoff joked, tsking as he handed Ryan a cappuccino, ruffling the boy’s hair.

“He put up a hell of a fight but your nephew distracted him. We took advantage of the opportunity,” Burnie said, untying Ryan and leaving with the rest of the full assassins to round up the last of the novices. Hopefully not Ryan’s stealth team.

“Your…Your nephew. The British guy,” Ryan repeated and Geoff nodded.

“He’s my sister’s kid. Born in the UK but…well, we’ll just say I’m all he’s got now,” he murmured quietly but the melancholic expression vanished and was replaced with a sly grin.

“He distracted you?” Geoff asked and Ryan just flushed, unable to form a reply. His brain couldn’t handle the assault it’s been undergoing recently.

“ _That’s_ the person you nearly got run over for?” Michael called out from across the room and _of course_ all the other novices were staring at him now, all sharing similar grins.

“Ryan’s got a crush?” Meg cooed, her hand over her heart as she and some of the other novices let out a united ‘aw’.

“It’s not like that,” Ryan insisted, albeit fruitlessly. “I fell into his bed,” Ryan explained, just for everyone’s eyes to widen, all letting out varying noises of surprise and glee.

“His bed?” Geoff asked, his eyebrow quirked and the smile dimming from mirthful to a little worrying, then it clicked how that sounded.

“ _Not like that either_ ,” Ryan squeaked. “I was in the vents and the ceiling gave way. I-I told him I’d send someone to help clean it up and he was just checking that I didn’t hurt myself,” the novice finished. Geoff’s eyes scanned over the young man and he finally let out a small ‘hm’ and pat Ryan on the shoulder.

“It’s all good. Once the mission is over, I’ll send some cleaners over. Although we’ll have to move him into a new room,” the Mentor mumbled to himself, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and sending out a series of text messages. A few moments later, there was a rattling and finally the cover for the vent fell to the ground with a clang, followed by Lindsay, Caleb and Kdin dropping to the floor.

“Surrender or mission completed?” Geoff asked. The trio approached the Mentor and Kdin reached into the front of his hoodie to pull out the small, cube package.

“Completed, Mentor,” Lindsay replied, followed by Red Team cheering and hi-fiving.

“Good job,” he said, taking the box and placing it on the kitchen counter. “Although, if novices are able to navigate the ventilation system enough to get through the entire building, maybe I should be filling it with traps,” Geoff thought aloud before waving it off.

“Alright, all of you, you have the day off. Spend it as you will. But no more vents. Oh and can someone tell Chris and Aaron they can come out of hiding? One of you should be able to find them,” Geoff announced, watching as the assassins-in-training vacated the suite but just as Ryan went to leave, a hand came down on his shoulder. “One moment, Haywood,” he added, waiting until everyone had left.

“My nephew is…he’s a good kid. I love him like he was my own son. So I shouldn’t need to explain the repercussions if you decided to pursue this crush and wind up hurting him, should I?” he warned. Ryan nodded without speaking, a mix of not knowing how to respond and being too terrified to. Geoff gave him a pat on the shoulder before shooing him out of the apartment, returning to his work.


	4. Chapter 4

**_ Chapter Four _ **

“A crush on the nephew of the leader of the Brotherhood of Assassins. You don’t do anything half-assed do you? How bad _is_ your death-wish?” Ray asked as the novices ate lunch in the cafeteria, all chattering amongst themselves about the mission. Aaron and Chris were finally found in a utility closet, playing poker, having decided they had no chance alone. Of course, they were then forced to do evasion training for the rest of the day for not attempting the mission.

“I saw Dad hold you back. Did he threaten to kill you or just kick you out?” Michael asked. Ryan rolled his eyes.

“He didn’t threaten me. He just…suggested I be careful about how I treat his nephew. Not that there’s anything going on. I’ve only met him once,” Ryan added, stuffing his mouth with mac-n-cheese to avoid having to answer more questions.

“And that’s different from threatening, how?” Michael asked with a snicker, just to get a light thwack from Lindsay who’s attention was immediately drawn elsewhere.

“Is he cute, kinda young? Dark blonde hair? Looks like he was in a very stylish tornado?” Lindsay asked. Ryan looked up from his food with puffed out cheeks full of pasta. He nodded, mumbling incoherently in a way that Lindsay correctly translated to ‘How did you know that?’.

“Because he’s walking over here,” she squealed excitedly before reverting back to calm, addressing someone over Ryan’s shoulder. “Hi, you must be Gavin,” she chirped.

“Yeah. Um…Sorry, I was wondering if I could sit with you,” the voice replied. Ryan involuntarily squeaked, an unwise move with a mouth full of pasta. He let out some disturbingly loud, hacking coughs while everyone stared and either giggled or offered assistance. He waved them all off and went for his soda.

“Hi- um…” Gavin started, looking right at Ryan as he sat down, trailing off when he realised he didn’t know his name.

“I-I’m uh-“ Ryan stuttered, his brain having a complete and utter meltdown. As amusing as it was watching their, normally so eloquent, fellow novice completely fail at interacting with an attractive young man, Lindsay decided to take pity on the poor bastard.

“He’s Ryan. He’s pleased to meet you,” Lindsay said sweetly while Ryan just let his head drop onto the cool surface of the table with a thunk.

“Is he okay?” Gavin asked quietly with a hint of concern.

“Oh he’s fine. He’s just feeling guilty and embarrassed after what he did to your room,” Michael lied easily, taking a bite of his burger.

“It’s all fine. Geoff just put me on a different floor,” Gavin replied with a small smile meant to reassure Ryan but it just left him even worse off.

“Oh, which floor?” Ray chimed in.

“Eighth,” Gavin replied simply.

“Ryan, isn’t that the same floor as you?” Lindsay asked while every other novice was holding back their snickers at the fortunate way these things lined up.

Ryan just dropped his head back onto the table.

They group sat there talking and Ryan eventually managed to contribute to the conversation, eventually just talking with Gavin in their own little world while everyone watched on with little knowing smiles. The assassins slowly trickling out of the cafeteria told them all that they should probably leave themselves and make the most of their day off. Ryan decided he wanted to use it to get to know Gavin a little better.

“So, Gav, did you- I mean since you live nearby now, would you like to-“

 _Crash_ _Tsssss_

Smoke started to fill the room but not quickly enough to completely obscure the darkly dressed figures that broke through the building’s window, weapons in hand as they closed in on the assassins. The only identifying mark on them was a large red cross emblazoned on their chests.

“Templars,” Lindsay breathed, choking on the word a little in terror. The other novices were frozen as well. They were first rank, the only combat they’ve been in was with each other or with instructors. They’ve heard stories but they’ve never encountered a Templar before.

And now there was an army of them, attacking people left and right.

“Ryan,” Gavin whimpered. The fear in his voice snapped Ryan out of his state of shock just as a man with a pistol approached, threatening them and ordering them to get on the ground.

The novice grabbed his tray of food and swung it out, hitting the Templar’s hand with a clang and a crunch that said it had broken at least one bone. Before the assailant could reach for another weapon, Ryan swung the tray again, this time across his face. It hit and hummed from the vibration caused while the Templar fell to the ground, thankfully having been knocked out by the hit.

“ _Hoods on, defend the Brotherhood,_ ” Ryan roared as he pulled his own hood over his head, covering his face as much as he could. Everyone else followed suit without hesitation, taking the orders as if it were given by Geoff himself before they sprinted to different points in the room, using whatever utensils they could snatch to take down the invading team.

“Miles, take Gavin to Geoff!” Ryan barked and the younger man nodded once, grabbing Gavin by the arm and pulling him out of the cafeteria. Just as the pair vanished from sight, Ryan heard a shot go off and there was suddenly a searing pain in his right arm. His gaze snapped towards the source of the noise and with the viciousness and intensity of a starved wolf, he launched himself at the Templar, his training taking over completely as he cut down the soldier with a knife he grabbed from an abandoned lunch tray.

Ryan and the other novices fought tooth and nail to keep the Templars at bay while the civilians escaped the building through the sewers and as soon as they were all out, it was just a fight to keep themselves alive. But what the novices lacked in experience, they more than made up for in tenacity.

“ _EVERYONE, OUT, NOW!”_ the voice of their Mentor roared from behind them, at the entrance to the cafeteria. Ryan looked over, seeing something dark green and ridged in Geoff’s hand.

“Shit,” Ryan hissed, giving his Templar one more solid hit before he ran, helping a bleeding Kerry off of the ground while he rushed everyone else out. Once the novices were just out of reach, Geoff pulled the pins on the grenades in his hand, tossing them into the room. The Mentor used his card in the access panel to seal the shutters into the cafeteria just before there the grenade detonated. There were some shouts and then silence.

“Are you all alright?” Geoff asked, looking over the students. Everyone nodded despite most definitely not being alright with the varying degrees of injury, the least being a sprained ankle.

“Did Miles get to you with Gavin?” Ryan asked while he helped Kerry wrap the slash in his leg.

“What?”

Ryan froze.

“Miles. I sent him to take Gavin to you,” Ryan repeated, the blood draining from his face. If Geoff hasn’t seen them, then Miles never made it. Geoff grabbed the walkie from his hip and held down a button.

“Shannon! Do you have Miles and Gavin?” He asked. There were a few seconds of silence before a crackled response came through.

“Lazer, _I have Miles. He’s pretty beat up but he’s okay,”_ Jack answered.

“And Gavin?” Geoff asked, a slight hysterical tinge to his voice that none of the novices had ever heard before.

“ _I don’t see Gavin,”_ Jack replied. “ _Miles keeps saying…Fuck. They took him, Geoff. They have Gavin.”_


	5. Chapter 5

**_ Chapter Five _ **

“Everyone’s on their flights. They’ll be at their new stations soon,” Jack relayed to Geoff who sat on a desk by the door to their safehouse, watching Ashley, Burnie and the other higher ranked assassins tend to each other and the novices. Geoff was mostly focused on Ryan, who was helping Kathleen change the bandage on Kerry’s leg.

“Geoff?” Jack said softly, putting a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder. The Master assassin glanced up at Jack for a moment, then rubbed a hand over his face, trying to remove the few tears that gathered there. He couldn’t cry. Not yet. Not while the novices were there, watching him like he was a goddamned super-hero that was going to save the day.

“Any word on Gavin?” Geoff asked with a slight rasp to his voice from lack of use. They’d been sitting there for about a day, getting their wounded patched up and organising safe transport for other assassins and their families.

“Nothing. I’m sorry,” Jack murmured, sitting himself down beside Geoff on the desk. “Miles got to the fourth floor before he was knocked out. He gave them a hell of a fight though,” the second of the brotherhood elaborated. Miles was worse off after the attack than the other novices, with a sprained wrist, a bullet graze to his side, a few slashes from a knife and finally a concussion with a nasty head wound. He was conscious but he was mostly panicking because he failed his mission from Ryan.

“Ryan blames himself. He thinks he should have taken Gavin instead of Miles,” Jack added. Geoff gave him a questioning look, as if asking how in the hell he knew that. “He told me on the way over,” he said.

“And what did you say to him?” Geoff asked.

“I told him that if he’d gone with Gavin, the others would have been a lot worse off. They all told me the same thing. They froze when it started but Ryan snapped them out of it and got them fighting. He helped keep them all alive,” Jack explained.

“He’s always been a good leader,” Geoff mused, leaning back against the wall.

“He didn’t care though. The novices were hurt and Gavin was taken. He thinks he failed, wants to be sent out like his dad was,” Jack murmured the last part because that was something that wasn’t meant to be mentioned around the students.

“What happened with his father was punishment for breaking the Creed. You don’t punish someone for following it. He kept his brothers and sisters safe,” Geoff justified.

“You’re telling me you wouldn’t have asked for exactly the same thing in his position?” Jack asked with an expression that dared him to lie and say he wouldn’t.

“I would have left it to my Mentor,” Geoff said instead. Jack gave him a look and then went back to watching the other assassins.

-*-*-*

“That’s good,” Kathleen said as Ryan secured the bandage, making sure it wasn’t too tight. “You did good getting his leg bandaged when you did. It might have been a lot worse if it’d been left like that,” she smiled and gave him a light pat on the shoulder. Ryan returned the smile weakly. He’d let the last family his mentor ever had, an innocent that didn’t deserve this, get taken by the worst people possible.

He didn’t deserve praise.

He deserved punishment.

 

**_ FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW _ **

“Ryan, do you understand what you’re asking?”

The novice stood at attention in front of his Mentor, trying not to let his expression change.

“I understand, Sir,” Ryan replied simply. Geoff leant back in his chair, looking over at Jack who leant against the window in the corner of the room.

“I tried to talk him out of it,” Jack defended himself, obviously not pleased by the request either. Ryan had come into the room after scheduling a meeting with Geoff and stood there, standing like a soldier rather than the teenager he should have been. A teenager that shouldn’t request the mission that Geoff had to send someone on that could end in death or capture.

“Ryan, I can’t send you on this mission,” Geoff said stiffly, watching a small flicker of irritation in the young man’s face.

“I’m…Sir, please send me,” Ryan asked again, the stoic expression wavering slightly.

“I’m not in the habit of letting my students die because they want revenge,” Geoff replied. Ryan’s jaw clenched and his gaze shifted down to the front of Geoff’s desk.

“It’s not-“

“Don’t lie to me, I know you better than that,” Geoff cut him off. Ryan’s mouth shut with a click of his teeth and his brow furrowed. “Ryan, you’re not ready to go on this level of mission. You would go and you would die,” Geoff added, trying to keep his tone as soft as possible. There was silence in the room, tense and almost painful while Ryan thought about what he was being told.

“I need to do something. I can’t just stay here and keep training. I need to help,” Ryan murmured, barely above a whisper but just loud enough to hear the catch in his throat.

“No you don’t,” Jack protested, “You think you need to make reparations for some imagined slight but the truth is, you’ve done nothing wrong. You’re doing us a world of good just by being here. By training yourself to be a great assassin. By helping the other novices through this…difficult time,” he advised from the corner of the room. Ryan’s eyes began to water but he said nothing.

The truth was, Ryan was helping. He knew the other students, he knew how to handle them when their grief got the better of them. While they’d gotten out mostly unscathed, others weren’t as lucky. Michael’s parents were civilian informants. They’d had no training and were killed in the attack, along with his younger brother. Kerry, Matt, Jeremy, Caleb, Meg, they’d all lost family as well and nearly cut themselves off entirely from the rest of the assassins.

But Ryan had gotten through to them. He talked with Caleb, Meg and Kerry, helped them through the worst of the pain. Michael, Matt and Jeremy, he trained with until they were too exhausted to bottle up anymore and broke down and they were better for it. Michael was eating and sleeping again.

He was doing good, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to help them by getting revenge on the monsters that destroyed their families.

“Then don’t send me on that mission. Let me do reconnaissance, scouting, something other than this. Other than waiting for more of our brothers and sisters to show up beaten or dead or not at all. I’m the best in my class and better than assassins two ranks higher. I can do something to help us find out how this happened or at least where the culprits are,” Ryan insisted, his resolve returning a little. Geoff sighed, rubbing a hand over his mouth and chin as he thought.

If he denied Ryan, the boy would just leave and do it himself. It was better to send him on a mission, preferably with a higher ranked partner, and know where he was and that he was looked after than to try to protect him and fail.

“Alright. Tomorrow we’ll give you your new rank. Your training is over and you’ll be sent on your first mission before midnight.”


	6. Chapter 6

**_ Chapter Six _ **

Ryan stood in his bedroom in front of the full-length mirror, staring at the ceremonial robes sent up by Geoff. They were styled like the Florentine assassins, as Geoff was descended from them, but the part that Ryan was mostly focused on was the blade on his wrist. It was heavy, heavier than the ones they’d fiddled with in lessons and the leather bracer on his forearm was branded with an eagle and the crest of their Brotherhood. Of course it would change once he was out in the street, you couldn’t be wearing something like that when you’re meant to be incognito.

“It looks good on you. Maybe a little tight around the ass,” Michael’s voice piped up from the doorway. The other man was leaning against the doorframe with a small smile on his face.

“What can I say, gotta show off the goods. Give the people what they want,” Ryan joked back, returning the smile hesitantly before looking back into the mirror, adjusting the sash and belt around his waist.

“So…You’re leaving after this,” the auburn haired boy sighed, but it wasn’t a question. He must have talked to Jack.

“I have to do this,” Ryan murmured. The other assassin said nothing for a while.

“I know. Just…Don’t take them all out. Leave some for me, okay?” Michael asked. Ryan turned around and walked towards his best friend, pulling him in for a hug.

“I’d never hear the end of it,” he replied. The two stood there for a while, until there was a knock at the door and someone telling Ryan they were ready for him.

The ceremony was fairly small, considering their numbers had been cut down a lot after sending most of their assassins away for missions or to re-establish themselves in new states or even other countries. But all of the novices were there, watching as Ryan stood on the roof of the building, back towards the city.

“When you’re ready, kid,” Geoff said quietly, nodding at Ryan before taking a step back. Ryan gave his friends one more look and a small smile, then he turned around, spread his arms wide and fell forwards, down into the pile of hay on the roof garden 10 stories down. Once the adrenaline wore off a few seconds later, he realised a hand was in front of him, ready to help him up.

“Welcome to the rank of Assassin,” Jack said with a small smile. All of the other higher ranked assassins still with their part of the Brotherhood, save Geoff, were standing behind Jack, giving Ryan their nods of approval and respect while he was led back downstairs. There, he met up with his friends and they talked and laughed and tried to not focus too much on the noticeably small amount of company they had.

“You get your ass back here in one piece, you understand? Or I’ll kick it myself,” Lindsay said while she hugged Ryan, giving his arm a light squeeze when she pulled away. He’d spent the last half hour saying his goodbyes. There were lots of tears, mostly from Miles who was oddly emotional but it was likely he just wanted to get in Ryan’s good graces before asking if he could use his xbox while he was gone.

“I will,” Ryan replied with a reassuring smile, then turned to the person he’d been saving for last.

“Being my best friend won’t save you from her wrath,” Michael said, raising his hands as if to keep himself out of the situation, “So you come back alive or I’ll be dragged along on the hunt for your body so she can bring you back to kill you again,” Michael finished and if anyone else noticed the little catch in his voice, they didn’t say a word. Ryan took a few steps forward and pulled Michael in for a hug, feeling the slight shudder in his friend’s shoulders.

“I’ll miss you, buddy,” Ryan murmured. Michael squeezed a little harder, muttering something that sounded like ‘I’ll miss you too’. Of course, he couldn’t leave with his friend sniffling. He needed to put a smile on his face and get the other novices laughing again.

“ _Did you just fucking lick me?!”_

**_ FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW _ **

**_ 5 Years Later _ **

“It’s been a while.”

“Hm?” Ryan looked up from his notebook, his red pen settled on a half-finished and intricate looking feather he was drawing beside a name. Call it unnecessary but linking his… _dispatches_ to the Brotherhood with feathers to mark kills helped keep him from just sinking the pit of mindless killing he sometimes found himself wandering towards.

“It’s been a while,” Burnie repeated. He’d aged but only a little more in the five years they’d been away. He was a little less solid but the look in his eyes kept people from getting any ideas about being able to take him in a fight.

Ryan nodded slightly in agreement. Five years was a long time as far as missions these days went. The young man watched the world go past the window of the cab that he and Burnie caught at the airport. He’d only been in New York once before and that was after the attack on the Austin base. When he’d lost…

They were close though. They had a location to search and people to interrogate. But not before checking in with their Mentor. Ryan glanced over at Burnie, narrowing his eyes when he noticed the small quirk of the lips while the man looked at his phone.

“What’s so funny?” Ryan asked suspiciously.

“Just a text from Geoff. Seems there’s a surprise waiting for you at headquarters,” Burnie replied, nodding at the building their cab was pulling up beside. Ryan’s brow furrowed and he exited the cab, looking around warily for something Geoff would class as a surprise. Likely something sharp and painful thrown at him to test if he’d kept up his train-

“ _HEY ASSHOLE!”_

There was a split second between the shout and the tackle that knocked him to the sidewalk, followed by a pair of arms wrapping around him and squeezing. The other half of that second was what it took to remember that voice and who had this particular shade of brown hair.

“Getting slow, buddy,” Michael teased as he released his friend and stood up, reaching a hand out for Ryan to take. The assassin smiled at his friend and shook his head with a chuckle while he took Michael’s hand and let himself get helped up.

“I’ve missed you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, the introduction is finished.  
> Time to start getting serious. >:3


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the long hiatus. Been a bit off with Ragehappy for a while but finally found the motivation to continue this on.

**_ Chapter Seven _ **

“Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your surprise,” Geoff said with a grin when Ryan and Burnie entered the office with Michael in tow.

“Sure did,” Ryan replied as he took out his notebook and handed it over to Geoff. “That’s all the information we were able to collect. All the feathers are-“

“Kills?” Geoff asked with a raised eyebrow, then he glanced over at Burnie who shrugged.

“We did a lot of work. He’s very thorough. I can confirm, all of those were necessary and a number of them were high ranking Templars,” Burnie added with a proud little nod in Ryan’s direction. The young man stood to the side of the room, smiling at Burnie’s acknowledgement before returning to his go-to stoic expression.

“This is…This is really fucking good,” Geoff mused, going through the pages until he looked up at Ryan. “I knew you’d make a hell of an assassin. Your dad’d be proud,” Geoff added solemnly. Ryan tensed a little but nodded regardless.

“So, do you have a plan on what to do with this information? Because I know a few newly ranked assassins that want something to do other than train,” Geoff said, nodding towards Michael who smiled sheepishly. “Full-ranked assassins shouldn’t be climbing in the air-vents like novices,” he added with a pointed quirk of the brow.

“You’re kidding?” Ryan asked with a bark of laughter.

“It’s a part of training now. The novices like to call it the ‘Haywood Method’ for stealth training,” Michael replied with a wide grin. Ryan’s cheeks flushed a little at that. Did he really leave that much of an impression?

“We have a room on the twelfth floor for you, Michael can show you there. He lives next door. Take some time. We can go over this mission tomorrow. Go, have fun with your old classmates,” Geoff dismissed them with a wave and a smile as he tossed Ryan’s apartment keys to him before going back to the notebook. The pair left with a nod, making their way to the elevator.

“It’s great to have you back. Everyone missed you,” Michael mentioned once the doors closed.

“Everyone? How much of the old class is here?” Ryan asked in reply.

“Nearly everyone. We’re missing Lindsay but she’s due back from a mission tomorrow,” the auburn haired assassin added.

“I thought Miles was stationed in Washington.”

“He took a bullet to his ankle and his arm. Completely busted. He’s in Intel permanently and couldn’t be happier,” Michael explained as they exited the elevator on their floor, ambling towards Ryan’s new room. “He _says_ its because his talents are put to better use here. Lindsay insists that he did it on purpose so he could stay here with Arryn,” he continued.

“She says about the guy that fainted when we went to donate blood,” Ryan snorted back.

“I’ll have you know, my blood sugar was low that day,” a familiar, albeit deeper voice, piped up from further down the hall behind them. Ryan turned around and couldn’t help the wide grin that found its way to his face. All of the novices he’d trained with, his friends, sans Lindsay, were piling out of the elevator with equal levels of excitement as they tried to get to Ryan first to welcome him back.

“Hey, hey _hey_ ,” Michael warned, slashing at the air between them, waving them all off. “Best friend first. Wait your turn,” he added, obviously joking because he’d never deny them all a greeting at the very least after five years of very little contact.

“Fuck that, I want welcome-back-hugs. Ryan hugs like a teddy bear. Wait, you do still hug like a teddy bear, right?” Meg asked, her arms extended but halted mid-hug a feigned hint of worry in her voice.

“I think, it’s been a while. Might be more like a grizzy than a teddy,” Ryan replied with a chuckle as he wrapped his arms around Meg as well as Kerry who happened to be standing a tad too close. He held tight and lifted them both up, his heart warming at the delighted shrieks from his friends while everyone else got in line to welcome him back. Once all the greetings were over, the group piled into Ryan’s apartment, picking out their own spots.

Surprisingly enough, all of his old stuff had been moved in, his desk, the old photos he’d had to leave behind. Hell, even his xbox had been set up, complete with a pile of all of the video games series he’d wanted to play but couldn’t.

“Lindsay?” Ryan asked simply, pointing at the games, wondering who knew him so well.

“Miles actually,” Michael replied. There was a tongue-click from across the room where Miles, Arryn and Kerry were curled up on Ryan’s bed followed by an ‘I got you baby’.

“Alright, in celebration of the return of out glorious leader, movie night and pizza, on Geoff,” Michael announced, a chorus of cheers from the rest of the group. It was cut short when there was a knock at the door and the voices tapered off into a series of groans and complaints that they were ‘missing out on Ryan time’.

“No rest for the wicked,” Ryan murmured, opening the door and seeing a young and unfamiliar girl, likely the novice stuck as the message runner for the day. The novice held out a letter, murmuring something about it being from Geoff. Apparently their fearless leader was gaining a few quirks in his old age.  
  
_James,_  
Once you’ve gotten settled, report to the Perch. Bring Vincent.  
Lazer

“Sorry guys. Gotta run off for a little. You can hang out here until I get back if you want, just lock up if you do leave. Michael you have to come too,” Ryan announced, blowing a kiss to his friends who all booed and moaned at losing their friend as soon as they’d gotten him back. The pair waved and closed the door behind them, hearing the beginnings of a pillow fight as they started for the elevator.

“You know that room is gonna be trashed by the time we get back. Where are we going?” Michael asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“The Perch. And nah. They missed me too much. They’ll clean it up. Or just sleep there,” Ryan replied, stepping into the elevator and reaching for the button for the top floor but Michael stopped him.

“Name change. The roof is ‘the clouds’,” Michael explained, pressing the button for the basement. “Perch is down here now,” he added, leaning against one of the elevator’s walls.

“In the basement? Why call somewhere underground a ‘Perch’?” Ryan asked. Michael grinned and tapped his foot along with the awful musak playing over the speakers.

“Things change. Training areas need upgrading to accommodate. We can’t halt everything just because civilians and cops show up, on the rare occasion that they do,” he stated, “So we created a place where the trainees could practice certain skills without affecting the living quarters, since this building isn’t that big,” Michael explained. The elevator dinged and the pair exited, met by another set of elevator doors, this time requiring a code. Michael pressed his in and the door opened, revealing a cylindrical elevator, half made of glass.

“Geoff likes to oversee training sometimes so he’s got a little box suspended above the training room,” Michael continued as he entered the second elevator and pressed a button with the letter ‘P’ on it. “Only certain people are allowed access in there. I am but that’s only because after you left, I became the next best assassin in our class. Likes to send me around as a messenger pigeon to all the other people in our group,” he grinned at that, giving Ryan a little wink with the compliment he’d stuck in there.

“Things really did change,” Ryan murmured while the elevator descended, the wall blocking the glass sliding upwards before it disappeared and revealed a large hall, sectioned off with several dozen young men and women doing different forms of training, including scaling walls, mock assassination drills and weapons training.

“Pretty cool, huh? We’ll grab a passcode for you ASAP so you can come down for training sometime,” Michael added. The elevator stopped with a ‘ding’ and the doors opened, revealing a simple office with a bar and the entire from section was a window with Geoff and Jack conversing while they watched over the training. The pair noticed Michael and Ryan enter and quickly finished up their conversation. Jack turned to greet them, walking over while Geoff pressed a button on the console beside him.

“Caiti, report to the Perch,” Geoff called over the tannoy then went for the coffee maker, fixing himself and the others some drinks as he spoke. “I went through some of your notebook. One piece of information stuck out because it confirmed some intel we received a few months ago from one of our new Assassins,” Geoff started as he and Jack, who had gotten up to assist, brought the coffees over and sat down, one on the end of the table, probably waiting for this Caiti.

“Which piece of info?” Ryan asked, taking a sip of the now-too-sweet coffee. Being on the run most of the time, one got used to a lack of milk and sugar.

“Regarding the Templar den in Malaysia. After you…pretty much trashed their base, there was a flight from there to Sydney, Australia, landing somewhere in the west. Our new operative, Caiti- Yes. Come in, sit,” Geoff greeted, motioning to the only free seat left. A woman joined them, she was probably a little older than Michael and Ryan with her brown hair in a ponytail and was dressed in simple workout clothes, a whistle around her neck.

“Caiti, this is Ryan, you already know Michael. Ryan, this is Caiti Ward, a recent addition from our Australian branch. She brought us the intel we’re here to discuss. Caiti, can you repeat what you told us when you joined?” Geoff asked. The woman nodded, taking a sip of her coffee as she thought over what she’d say.

“I was stationed in Western Sydney, overlooking Templar activity. An unscheduled flight came in around three months ago, carrying four passengers. One was a Templar official known as Bishop, two were guards and the fourth was…most of us didn’t recognise him but someone that was originally posted to your chapter in Austin did,” Caiti explained, placing her cup back down on the coffee table.

“He’s one of ours?” Michael asked while Ryan frowned. Bishop had been his main target and it did irk him that the snake had escaped while he’d been busy with the guards a floor below his office. Bastard snuck off in a helicopter and Ryan had just missed him.

“Not exactly,” Jack answered instead, sliding a file over towards Michael and Ryan. “He was never an assassin or an informant but he was there in Austin during the attack. For the past five years, he’s been bounced around from base to base, mostly accompanied by Bishop and always cuffed,” he added while the pair opened up the file and the documents in there weren’t what drew Ryan’s attention first. It was the photo.

“You found him,” Ryan breathed, eyes never leaving the photo of Gavin, cuffed and attached to one of his captors while he was dragged along behind Bishop, staring at the tarmac and looking tired and distraught.

“We managed to track them and their plane left last week and arrived in New York just a few hours ago. About when you arrived,” Geoff piped up, taking a long drink of his coffee. “One of our informants at the airport confirmed that Bishop arrived, accompanied by two men and a young man matching Gavin’s description,” he added.

“They were last seen heading for a well-known Templar base in Manhattan. A meeting is taking place there, noted in the documents you were able to retrieve from Malaysia and every single one of those Templars will be leaving the country at midnight tonight,” Jack continued, sliding another folder, this time much thicker, over towards Michael and Ryan. It was a mission briefing, his and Michael’s names on the list of Assassins to attend as well as Ray and Lindsay who would be meeting them at the building.

“You’re finally gonna do it, Ryan,” Geoff said with a serious expression. Ryan looked at his mentor, the photo from the Australian airport still in his hands. “You’re gonna bring Gavin back.”


	8. Chapter 8

**_ Chapter Eight _ **

 

“You look like you were chewed up by shark made of machine guns,” Michael commented as the pair got ready for their mission. An old ritual they went through back during training and the familiarity was nice even after not seeing Michael for so long. Ryan looked over his chest and shoulders. Sure he’d gotten hit a few times but it wasn’t _that_ bad.

 

“You’re one to talk. What the hell happened there?” Ryan asked poking at the jagged looking scar on Michael’s shoulder, curling around and down his chest.

 

“Washington. I was there with Miles when he got hit. Had to drag him out myself and got caught with my pants down by this Wade Wilson Wanabee,” he explained.

 

“Ouch,” the older boy hissed sympathetically, pulling on a black t-shirt, followed by one of his newer hoodies, complete with wider sleeves to cover his hidden blade and bracer and infinite pockets filled with useful things like smokebombs, grenades and darts without appearing bulgy and conspicuous.

 

“So Ray and Lindsay are already there?” Ryan asked as he looked in the mirror, running a hand through his slightly too-shaggy hair, making a note to get it cut when he returned that night.

 

“Meeting us on the roof of a building on the north side,” Michael confirmed, securing his blade’s strap. After he was sorted, he gave Ryan a pat on the shoulder and a grin."Time to go save your damsel in distress," he joked and Ryan frowned at the reference.

 

"I think our memories of events are very different. Gavin and I never-"

  
"Dude, you were head over heels for that guy and you met him twice and he was one flirty smile away from begging you to go to prom with him," Michael retorted, leading the way out of Ryan’s apartment. “If you two aren’t the purest case of ‘love at first sight’ then I spent the last five years writing my best man speech for nothing,” he teased.

“…You didn’t really, did you?”

“I absolutely did. Its sitting in my desk in my apartment,” Michael replied without hesitation. Ryan groaned in dismay as the pair stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the basement. There were a few trainees in the elevator when they entered, two young women and three young men. The young women and two of the boys stared at Ryan in awe and the last with a sour expression on his face as if Ryan’s very presence was an irritation.

“No, feel free to take up the whole elevator,” he groused, his voice full of indignation while the other trainees shushed him but he’d already caught the assassin’s attention. Ryan looked down at him, the trainee was barely up to his shoulders and as Ryan’s blue eyes trained on him, he slouched a little and seemed ready to back away despite there being nowhere to go.

“ _Shut up,_ Ben. That’s _Veterano_ Haywood,” one of the young men hissed and the Smug trainee, Ben, apparently, paled and ducked even more as if he could shrink enough to disappear. Ryan turned to Michael with a quirked eyebrow when the trainees hurried off at their floor, one or two glancing back with those same awed expressions.

“ _Veterano?_ I haven’t been ranked since I got back. Aren’t I still technically a _Assistente?_ ” he asked.

“Geoff’s been keeping track of the rank changes for all assassins out on long term missions on a board in his office. As soon as we get back from this, you’re due for another rank so it’ll be _Maestro_ Ryan Haywood, this chapter’s own legendary ghost assassin. Did you know that you were apparently raised by wolves before being given your first rank at six years old?” Michael asked with a snigger.

“Jesus. Kids these days,” Ryan lamented.

“Oh that wasn’t the kids. That was Miles. He spreads all kinds of rumours about your ‘origin story’,” Michael added as the elevator dinged and they exited, instead of entering the elevator to visit the Perch, Michael led them to the left where an access door to the sewers waited for them.

“Does this make you my trusty sidekick?” Ryan snarked back as Michael typed in his access code, the door unlocking with a heavy clunk.

“Can’t be your love interest now, can I? Not with Princess Gavin waiting for us in the Templar Castle,” Michael replied, opening the door and motioning for Ryan to head in first. He closed the door behind them and pulled at the grate covering the entrance to the sewers. Ryan didn’t reply, instead he worried at his lip and slid down the ladder, Michael following close behind him. He landed at the bottom with a light splash and a grimace at the smell that assaulted his nose.

“Come on, I was just joking, Rye-bread,” Michael said quietly, poking at Ryan’s shoulder, feeling the tension.

“Its…I’ve spent five years trying to undo what I did to Geoff. Joking about how Gavin’s still in Templar custody isn’t all that amusing to me,” Ryan pointed out, trudging through the sewer, going over the directions in his head.

“Shit, sorry man,” Michael murmured, “But you know its not your fault, right? Geoff doesn’t blame you,” he said, reaching out and giving Ryan’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“I know he doesn’t. But it doesn’t stop Gavin being gone or me being ,” he sighed, gently shrugging off the hand and switching to a jog as he tried to get to the exit as quick as possible. He needed to get this mission done and make the last five years up to Geoff. And to Gavin.

**_ FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD- FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD- FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD- FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD- FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD-FREEWOOD- _ **

“About time, you two. Done making out yet?” Lindsay asked through their earbuds when Ryan and Michael climbed up the access shaft into the basement of the hotel. A camera to their right started blinking in morse code, spelling out ‘Threesome?’. So apparently Ray was in the security system.

“Hey, just because you’re jealous of our love doesn’t mean you can be nasty,” Michael teased as the pair went for the opening in the ventilation system that would get them into the elevator shafts. “Nothing like old procedures to celebrate our reunion,” he added when Ryan laced his fingers together to give Michael a leg up.

“This time should be easier, we’re not going up against Lazer’s twisted schemes,” Ryan replied, reaching up when Michael held out his hand to give the other assassin some help in getting into the vent. Michael scurried through the ventilation system, Ryan crawling a little slower behind him mostly hindered by his broader frame and the unfamiliarity of the situation. It had been about five years since he’d done this last and, from Geoff’s comment earlier, Michael had kept himself up to date with the ‘Haywood Method’ by climbing through the building.

“Come on ladies, we’ve got some party bags waiting for you,” Lindsay called over the headset just as Michael and Ryan got to the top of the building, shoving the hatch open to let in the warm night air. Two pairs of hands reached into the vent and helped pull Michael out, then reached back in to assist Ryan, this time accompanied by two very different strained grunts.

“Jesus, R. Did you eat lead while you were gone? I thought M was only kidding when he said you ate nails for breakfast,” Lindsay complained but with a wide smile on her face. Once Ryan was situated, she pulled him into a tight hug with a quiet ‘welcome back’ in his ear. He returned the embrace just as tightly, pulling away and patting her on the shoulder while Ray and Aaron just waved from a few metres away, a tablet in Ray’s hand while he conversed with someone via his headset. Aaron was beside him, murmuring things to the hacker while he set up a grapnel launcher.

“Alright, the only point of access we have is the roof,” Lindsay explained, grabbing two backpacks from behind a small storage room, handing them to Ryan and Michael before pointing over at the building on the south side of the one they stood on. “We’re firing a series of EMP grenades on different points of the building ‘randomly’ around to mask the one we fire at the roof where you two will be heading,” she added. Ryan looked inside of his backpack, finding repelling and flying fox gear which he sighed at with resignation. He hated those types of plans.

“We’ve been casing the place for a few days now and it looks like they’ve got G on the 22nd floor, pretty heavily guarded too,” Ray chimed in, finally looking up from his tablet. “Once you’re in, security will mostly have headed towards the lobby to try and keep out possible intruders. You use the gear, repel down the elevator shaft to the 22nd floor. The Emp’s will shut down the lights before you head out into the hall so use the goggles you have in the front pocket of your packs,” he added.

“You have less than 20 minutes before the power comes back on and your presence is detected. You have until then to go in, get G, get back to the roof where A will be waiting. While you’re in there, A will be setting up the second line for you to slide over to the building on the south side where C is set up,” Lindsay continued, pointing over at Aaron who gave them a two-fingered salute.

“Once C’s with you, parkour your asses off until you reach the empty cab parked 5 blocks over. C has the keys,” Ray mimed parkour as well as he could on a flat surface, “She’ll take you to a safe house where you’ll all have to wait for one week until the search is cleared up and then you, C, M and G get back to the _Villa_ , where we’ll have a party with blackjack and hookers waiting for you,” he added with a fairly straight face and a snort from Lindsay.

“Sounds good, let’s do this,” Michael said, tugging at his hood so it covered his face as much as it could, Ryan doing the same behind him.

“Good luck boys,” Lindsay called, “firing first EMP.”


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The long awaited new chapter. I'm sorry it took so long but I just kinda lost inspiration for this. But, thanks to a new set of songs (which I'll list at the end of this chapter in the notes, because they're awesome) I managed to write more :D

**_Chapter Nine_**  
  
Aaron went over first, halfway across the line when the first EMP grenade went off and shut down the power for the first few floors, the next few hitting randomly over the outside of the building, one landing on the roof a few seconds before Aaron landed with a roll. Michael went next, followed closely by Ryan, taking off for the access hatch in the roof as soon as their feet touched the gravelled rooftop. Michael made short work of the padlock, picking it quickly and opening the hatch with a clang just as Ryan came up behind him.

“Going in,” Ryan called on his comm as he and Michael pulled the masks up over their mouths, hearing a quick ‘affirmative’ from Lindsay before he swung around onto the ladder, sliding down to the uppermost flight of stairs, Michael following right after. The pair sprinted down the stairwell, hidden blade-braced arms in front of them. They could hear the alarms from downstairs, shouts as security scrambled around, trying to get down to the lobby or to protect their bosses. Michael crouched down low, creeping closer and closer to the two security guards stationed right by the door leading to the stairwell.

“ _Joenes, Marks, is the prisoner secure?”_ a voice called over one of their walkies.

“Its pronounced- fuck it. The prisoner is secure. No activity on 22nd, over,” one of them replied, levelling an irritated by unsurprised look at his companion who seemed to be trying to cover up his snickering.

“They’ll never drop it-“ the laughing guard started, just to drop to the ground when Michael sprinted out from around the corner and thrust his hidden blade into his jugular with his right arm while his left hand covered the guard’s mouth. Ryan was only a split second behind Michael, killing the second guard with just as much brutal efficiency.

The bodies hadn’t even hit the floor by the time Ryan and Michael were darting down the darkened hallway towards the room where Gavin was being kept. Two guards stood outside of that door but, like their colleagues, didn’t even get a murmur out before Michael and Ryan took down their prey. Flashlights danced around in the stairwell, accompanied by boots thumping around and getting progressively closer.

“Shit. You get that door open, I’ll block the stairwell off,” Michael called, running back towards the stairs as he pulled a pair of smokebombs out of one of his many pockets, setting them off and hurling them out the door. Ryan busied himself with slamming his shoulders into the door over and over again, until finally the wood cracked underneath the strain and burst open, the momentum pushing Ryan forward, stumbling into the room, dropping to one knee.

“Jesus Christ!” a voice called, distinctly not-American. The assassin’s gaze flashed towards the source of the voice, a young man half-seated on the bed, the EMP induced blackout kept him shrouded in darkness. Until he stepped a little closer, out of the shadow cast by the curtains so the little bit of light from the building next door landed on his face, making his hazel eyes sparkle.

“You…” the Brit asked, a hope colouring his words while he took another step closer, crouching down a little to try and peek underneath the hood. Ryan tilted his head down a little more and made sure his mask was still in place. He didn’t want Gavin to look at him. Not now. The Brit stiffened and his mouth opened and closed as he tried to think.

“ _Niente é vero_ ,” Gavin called.

“What?” Ryan replied, hearing someone race towards the door. Michael stuck his head in, blood staining his white hoodie.

“Get your ass in gear, R. We got two minutes before the assholes get up here,” he hurried. Ryan turned back to the captive and took a step towards him but Gavin grabbed a lamp, pulling it off the bedside table and holding it out like a weapon.

“We don’t have-“ Ryan started, just for Gavin’s shaky voice to interrupt him.

“ _Niente è vero_!” he repeated, a little louder this time. Ryan dug through his mind, trying to recall some of the little bit of Italian that was drilled into all assassin trainees by their Mentor. Their ranks and their creed.

“ _Niente è vero. Tutto è permesso,”_ Ryan added, the sounds rolling off his tongue as easily as English did. The young man’s shoulders visibly relaxed and he dropped the lamp, rushing over towards the door.

“Please get me the hell out of here,” he pleaded. Ryan took off in front, Michael covering them from the back while the older man went for the stairwell. The door opened with a slam as a tactical squad burst in, rifles aimed as they shouted for the assassins to surrender. Ryan paused, hands spread out in front of him, feigning defeat to give himself a few brief seconds to think.

“Ears covered, eyes closed, mouth open,” Ryan murmured to Gavin. Michael did as requested, followed by Gavin immediately before Ryan flicked his right arm out, two small metal spheres releasing from the device under his sleeve. One hit a squad member in the head, the other bounced off the wall behind the group, emitting a high pitched whirring noise for a second, then exploding in a flash of light joined by a crack like thunder, leaving the tactical squad reeling, blinking and covering their ears.

“Run!” the assassin ordered, grabbing Gavin’s arm and pulling him along while Michael led the way to a room at the other end of the hall, slamming the door shut behind them and barring it with a wardrobe while Ryan ripped a length of rope out of his pack, attached to a belt and pulley. Michael did the same as Ryan slammed at the bars of the window, but they refused to budge.

“Fucking fuck fuck, L, we’re trapped on the 22nd, we need something blow this fucking window open,” Michael asked, pulling out a flashlight from his pack, turning it on and off in a series to signal to someone outside.

“… _C’s got your position. A is evaccing, get the fuck back because this is gonna get explodey,”_ Lindsay replied.

“Explodey? Fucking explodey?” Michael retorted, getting an exasperated ‘affirmative’ in return. Meanwhile, Ryan put the repelling belt around him, hooking the rope through and addressing Gavin.

“You’re gonna need to hold onto me. Don’t squirm around or anything, just wrap your arms tight, like you’re trying to break my ribs, got it?” Ryan explained. Gavin just shook his head, eyes wide with terror.

“We’re gonna jump?! It’s a 20 storey fall!” he shrieked, backing away from the window as if it were the edge of a cliff instead.

“22 actually,” Michael replied.

 “Not helping, M,” Ryan snapped back before he turned to Gavin, hands on his shoulders and forcing his gaze to meet Ryan’s. “I’m going to keep you safe. I swear. I just need you to trust me, alright?” he asked. Gavin stared dumbly into the older man’s eyes, nodding slowly in agreement. Ryan turned away, busying himself with helping Michael set up his own repelling line, not seeing the Brit’s brow furrow in bemusement.

“ _Hold onto your asses,”_ Lindsay called through their headsets. There was a gap, then the building rocked with an explosion that demolished the outside wall of the room, the previously immovable bars clanging against the edge of the floor on their way down.

“So much for ‘hide in plain sight’, goddamn,” Michael breathed. He tied himself off on metal bars of the nearest untouched window, Ryan doing the same on the other side of the gaping hole in the side of the building. The older assassin reached out to Gavin, motioning for him to get into position. The captive hesitated, fear flashing in his eyes again. The door behind him started thudding, the tactical team having come out of their flashbang stupor and were trying to break the door down.

“ _What are you doing?! Get out of there!”_ Lindsay ordered them. Ryan’s jaw clenched as he reached out and pulling Gavin into him, wrapping his free arm around the smaller man’s waist.

“Hold on to me,” he instructed, his lips brushing against Gavin’s ear and the reaction was instantaneous, the young man wrapped his arms around Ryan’s shoulders, squeezing tightly as the pair dropped, the rope squealing in protest. Gavin’s fingers dug into the flesh of his back, nails biting the skin as they descended, Michael immediately next to them. The rope jerked once, twice, drawing Ryan’s attention up. The men had gotten into the room and were trying to cut the rope. They still had another ten storeys left before they could touch ground. Ryan glanced over at Michael, sharing a look of concern and calculation, both trying to figure out how to get out of this without any broken bones at the best.

“ _Collecting the rubbish,”_ Caiti’s voice piped up and sure enough, there was a garbage truck coming to a stop right in front of the building, just a gentle shove against the building away from them.

“Pushing off in three…two…now!” Ryan announced, kicking off from the building’s wall and curling the arm securing Gavin a little tighter around him. Michael did the same and, after checking his trajectory, cut the rope at his belt to keep the Templar squad from jerking him around. Ryan went to do the same but with his hands busy either controlling the speed of their descent or keeping Gavin from becoming a stain on the pavement, he couldn’t.

Another jerk from the rope swung Ryan and Gavin a foot too far to the right, set to land right on the cab of the truck, the metal gleaming menacingly, threatening a whole lot of bodily harm if they met.

“Let go!” Ryan called as he let go of both the rope and Gavin, shoving him away to force him to land in the centre of the garbage truck, but also forcing his own landing spot to change.

“ _No no, Ryan!”_ Caiti shrieked and Ryan could see her shielding her face right before he hit the hood of the cab. The impact cracked a few of his ribs and it shocked the air out of his lungs, but he was mostly unharmed, able to keep a hold of his repelling line to slow his drop just that little bit more to keep himself out of a pine box.

“R! Fuck, R! Are you okay?” Michael hollered from the back of the truck. Ryan gave the dizziness a moment to dissipate and to get his breath back before he rolled onto his side, then try to prop himself up with his hands, looking into the cab and giving Caiti an apologetic look, mouthing ‘sorry’ at her. She let out a series of impressive curse words and phrases, most of which Ryan didn’t understand a little bit as she got the garbage truck going again, slowly to allow the assassin time to crawl over the cab and climb into the back with Michael and Gavin.

“You fuck! You could have fucking died! You just got back and then nearly kill your-fucking-self!?” Michael reprimanded, his jersey accent thickening in his rage. “Don’t you do that ever again, you faulty fucking streetlamp,” he added, reaching over and undoing Ryan’s hoodie to try and gauge the damage. In the process, the hood and mask were removed, leaving Ryan’s face on display to their companion, who the two assassins had completely forgotten up until now.

“Are you…Ryan?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading my darlings. And the songs, if anyone is interested, are:  
> 'Dark in my imagination' by Of Verona  
> 'Poison' by Rita Ora
> 
> The first one will probably be my big inspiration for any sex scenes. Its got a nice feel to it :P


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some death and blood mentions

**_ Chapter Ten _ **

“Are you…Ryan?”

Gavin’s voice was quiet and a little shaky but it caught Michael and Ryan’s attention quickly.

“You remember me?” Ryan asked, a little shocked himself but Michael just scoffed.

“’Course he does,” he muttered to Ryan so their recently rescued companion couldn’t hear him. “He was probably writing ‘Gavin Haywood’ on a fucking binder for the past five years,” Michael teased, receiving a jab in the side for his troubles.

“Kinda hard not to. I got moved around so much because you kept nearly catching the pricks that took me. You hear things when Templars refuse to let you out of their sight,” he added with a clench of his jaw.

“That’s our R. Kickass Assassin Extraordinaire,” Michael joked while he pressed gently on the ribs, drawing a hiss from the older man.

“ _Guys, we have trouble. There’s a blockade and it looks like more Templars,”_ Caiti warned the group just as the truck lurched to a stop. Michael looked at Gavin and Ryan, then at himself, then back at Gavin, the gears in his head turning for a moment before he started unzipping his white hoodie, almost ripping it off in his haste to get through whatever he was planning. Ignoring the startled ‘hey’ from Gavin, he unzipped the Brit’s navy blue hoodie as well, taking it off of his and throwing the white hoodie at the younger man’s face.

“Put it on, cover your face and, for fuck’s sake, keep close to _him_ ,” Michael insisted, nodding towards Ryan as he finished pulling on Gavin’s jacket, tugging the hood over his face as far as possible. Ryan caught on to Michael’s plan, realising that the pair wore clothes just similar enough to confuse their pursuers at a distance with the exception of the jackets.

“M, this plan-“ Ryan started just for Michael to cut him off.

“Is a stroke of fucking genius and as long as you haven’t been slacking all these years, we’ll be fucking peachy,” the auburn haired assassin said with a small grin, trying to instill confidence in his companions. But Ryan knew better. He was nervous. He wasn’t sure if this would work and if it didn’t…

“We’ll see you at my welcome back party, yeah? Can’t eat all that cake myself. I won’t fit into my ceremonial uniform,” Ryan replied. Michael let out a huff of laughter, before looking over at Gavin, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“Have fun with him,” he said with a smile before returning to his previous, stoic expression. “We’re gonna throw out some smoke and flash bangs, then we get out and run like hell. C,” he added, pressing a finger to the earpiece. “You meet us at the back of the truck, pull on my arm like I’m not a badass assassin and we’ll run towards Central Park. R, you still got that safe house in Brooklyn?” Michael asked. The older assassin nodded, readjusting his hoodie, wincing a little at the pull to his ribs.

“Go there and stay there, we’ll give you a signal when its safe to come back to the _Villa_. God speed, son,” Michael finished with a mock salute. With a flash of silver and the ‘chink’ of metal, Michael threw out two grenades, one hissing immediately, a puff of smoke releasing from the top while the other remained silent until just after it hit the ground outside. Ryan closed his eyes and reached over to cover Gavin’s just in time to shield them from the flash.

“ _GO, GO, FUCKING GO,”_ Michael barked, leaping out of the truck and into the smoke, covering his mouth as best as he could. Ryan trailed after, helping Gavin step down onto the asphalt, shielding his eyes as a beam of light from a helicopter shone down on them, the whirring blades dissipating the smoke from the grenade. Michael and Caiti were already taking off towards the park, dodging between stopped vehicles and the pedestrians that had gathered around the building to watch while Gavin stood frozen by the back of the truck.

“Move!” Ryan ordered, pulling on Gavin’s arm, almost dragging him along behind him. The Brit squeaked when he nearly tripped over but managed to get his legs moving, just barely keeping pace with the assassin.

“Freeze!” a police officer commanded but it only took a split-second glace for Ryan to tell that the man was in a fake uniform. A good one but still a fake. Ryan darted to his right, avoiding the Templar-cop by sprinting down an alleyway, the flashing red and blue of the police vehicles briefly illuminating their way until they turned down another corner and the pair found themselves back on a main street, this one with fewer people and an entrance to the subway. Gavin started for the stairwell but the grip around his wrist tightened and Ryan directed him across the street and through another alleyway. The man in the officer uniform chased after them, drawing his gun from his holster, firing two rounds towards Ryan and Gavin but the bullets only chipped at the brick beside Gavin’s head and pierced the metal streetlamp at the end of the alley, damaging the wiring and plunging the three into darkness.

“Rye…” Gavin called out nervously, the hand disappearing from around his wrist. There was silence save for his own near panicked breathing, then a gunshot rang out beside him followed by some scuffling and gurgling, then Ryan’s voice with a steely tone caught his attention and the comforting feel of his hand around his returned, but this time with something warm and a little sticky coating it.

“Keep moving,” the assassin ordered, pulling Gavin along. There were shouts coming from back towards the Templar base, getting louder as they advanced on the pair. Gavin was pulled along, changing directions every few feet it seemed like until they finally stopped in front of a butcher’s, the doors locked and the signs dim. Ryan fiddled with the locks while Gavin waited outside, finally glancing at his hands in the muted light of the streets, seeing blotches of red staining his skin. His eyes widened in shock and he focused on Ryan, finally seeing him in the light since they’d come up against that Templar agent and the back of his white hoodie was mostly fine except for the red handprint dragging over his right shoulder, like the Templar had clutched at him in his last moments, probably trying to push him away.

The gurgling noise echoed in Gavin’s mind and he felt bile rising in his throat when Ryan turned around, the blood far more pronounced on his chest and sleeves but the earnest expression on Ryan’s face managed to distract him again.

“Come on,” was all Ryan said as he held out a hand for Gavin to take, rather than just drag him inside. Gavin hesitated, the blood on Ryan’s hands putting him off a little but after a moment, he slipped his hand into Ryan’s and let him lead him into the butcher shop, closing and locking the door behind them.


End file.
